Pinoy short film Creative License wins top prize at US National 24-Hour Film Racing Tour 2010

(SPOT.ph) Filipino short film Creative License was named Best Film at the US National 24-Hour Film Racing Tour 2010, reports ABS-CBN News. Directed by filmmaker and cinematographer Paolo Dy, the short also won Best Direction, Best Sound Design and the Audience Award. In the Brooklyn leg of the competition, Dy’s team took home Best Editing, Best Sound Design and the Audience Award.

Written and shot in 24 hours in New York, the film follows a "young Filipino immigrant struggling to make it in the big city." The assigned theme was "Exaggeration" and the surprise element was pizza.

"(It) was inspired by conversations we had with Pinoy friends living in New York and elsewhere. Like most immigrants, they are very willing to give up certain luxuries and make sacrifices to build a life for themselves," theater actress Cathy Azanza, who wrote the screenplay, said. "But, of course, their families back home worry. Out of love, they find that, at times, they have to get ’creative’-just like the character played by Christopher (Fabregas) in the film-to stop their families from worrying."

Dy said they chose to write the short in Filipino because they were "very conscious about making the film (tackle) what was close and real" to them. "At the heart of it, we just hoped we could tell a story people could relate to (with) a character people could feel for-no matter what language we used. More than a Filipino story, we hoped to tell a very human one."

Dy and Azanza received a $4000 (around P170,000) cash prize, a one-year scholarship with the California-based Writers Boot Camp, and professional film and audio editing software from Sony Creative Software, reports Manila Bulletin.